Retardation Official Stirs Controversy

Move Amid Oak Hill Strike Stirs Controversy

August 21, 1992|By KATHLEEN MEGAN; Courant Staff Writer

Toni Richardson, the state's commissioner of mental retardation, decided at the beginning of the week to seek other agencies to serve the mentally retarded clients of the strike-plagued Oak Hill School.

It was a controversial move that Richardson thought was good public policy, aimed at stabilizing an unstable situation for the benefit of the clients.

But by Thursday, observers were still guessing at its impact.

On the one hand, Richardson's move could force Oak Hill administrators to get serious about resolving the strike, now nearly seven weeks old.

It could also serve as a warning to other private nonprofit residential and day program agencies that face strike deadlines next week.

On the other hand, outraged Oak Hill adminstrators may become more intransigent and gird for a legal fight with the state. And in a show of support, other private nonprofit agencies may not bid on Oak Hill's programs.

As of Thursday, the general counsel of Oak Hill, a Hartford-based agency also known as the Connecticut Institute for the Blind, was angrily writing to Richardson, appealing her decision and contending hers was a "politically motivated" move designed to pressure Oak Hill into a settlement of the strike.

Stepping into a strike stalemate is always a sensitive matter for the state, and Richardson said this week that she was doing so reluctantly and with care.

"I'm concerned primarily with the length of time this has all been going on and the lack of any clear resolution in sight," she said.

Richardson said Oak Hill's use of 350 replacement workers has been "satisfactory" since July, when the facility experienced some interruptions in service.

"But that isn't really the issue I was going after," she said. "I was critiquing [Oak Hill's] stability and their inability to get

to the place where we can foresee longterm stability for people."

Employees of the school have been on strike since July 8. After Oak Hill refused both a state request for a 30-day cooling-off period and the strikers' offer to return to work, the state Department of Labor ruled the dispute a lockout. That made the workers eligible for unemployment benefits.

In a letter Monday to Oak Hill administrators, Richardson said she would review proposals from other agencies to operate day programs for mentally retarded clients as of Oct. 1. She said Oak Hill, too, could submit a proposal.

Asked if she took the step she did to pressure Oak Hill, Richardson said, "It would be naive to think this kind of action doesn't apply any pressure."

So far, the reaction has been both predictable and surprising. Even before the general counsel's letter Thursday, Lars Guldager, the executive director of Oak Hill, protested. In a letter to the governor, he called Richardson's action a "blatant political maneuver" and a "scare tactic" designed to force Oak Hill to settle the dispute. The workers' union, New England Health Care Employees Union District 1199, "remains unscathed," Guldager wrote.

Perhaps less expected was the positive reaction of union leaders to Richardson's move. Even though it might mean lost jobs for their members if Oak Hill loses the contract to other agencies, the union leaders say Richardson's move affirms their conviction that the quality of programs has deteriorated.

Richardson has "come to the realization that Oak Hill has acted in an irresponsible way," said Kevin Doyle, vice president of the union. "It has instigated and prolonged the strike and disrupted clients and put clients at risk."

On the other side, leaders of other private nonprofit agencies share Guldager's anger. On Thursday, representatives of about 25 such agencies met and agreed not to bid on Oak Hill's day programs, to protest the commissioner's action. They planned to meet with Richardson today to ask her to reconsider.

"The threat is, we can take your program away anytime we like and [the commissioner] can use any reason she wants," said Belle Fine, executive director of New Seasons Inc., a Manchester agency that operates group homes and day programs for mentally retarded people. "Everyone is sticking their nose into our business."

From the beginning, state officials have pledged not to interfere in the strike, to leave it as much as possible a matter between an employer and employees.

But this situation is no ordinary labor dispute.

For starters, its employees are paid through state-funded contracts awarded to the private nonprofit agencies. The agencies, including Oak Hill, have said they cannot raise employees' pay because the state has cut agency contracts by an average of 3.5 percent. Oak Hill told workers it was cutting their wages by 4 percent and reducing benefits as of July 1.

More importantly, strikes by employees of these agencies -- which provide residential and day services to mentally retarded, mentally ill and otherwise disabled people -- are akin to strikes by police and hospital workers. They affect populations that cannot do without the services they offer.